Fortress of Solitude
The Fortress of Solitude (Engl. "Fortress of Solitude") is a recurring action scene in the stories of the comic book hero Superman and the title of various Superman publications, such as the comic The Fortress of Solitude by 1981. In addition, features next Superman also the title character of the adventure novel series Doc Savage about a refuge known as the "Fortress of Solitude".
Going beyond its original role as a mere setting for the fictional stories, the Fortress of Solitude now has a firm place as an established topos and a reference point of US pop culture that has been repeatedly taken up. For example, an educational novel by the writer Jonathan Lethem from 2003 is allusive titled The Fortress of Solitude and there are countless, mostly humorous, references to the fortress in the products of the American entertainment industry, for example in television series such as The Simpsons or South Park .
The fortress of loneliness in the Superman stories
As the setting for the adventure of the science fiction hero Superman, the fortress of loneliness appears in countless comics, novels, computer and console games, films, animated and real actor series, which depict the adventures of the noble “fighter for good” from space describe.
In addition to countless uses of the fortress as a setting within the Superman comics since the 1940s, the name Fortress of Solitude was also found as the title of the Superman special Superman and His Incredible Fortress of Solitude from 1981, designed by the artists Ross Andru and Dick Giordano , which appeared as # 26 in the DC Special Series .
history
The first use of the Fortress of Solitude as the setting of a Superman story can be found in the comic book Superman # 17 from 1942. In that booklet, the fortress is still referred to as the "Secret Citadel" (German: "Geheime Zitadelle") , while it did not get its now familiar name until years later. The geographic location of the fortress has also changed over the years: if the fortress in Superman # 17 was still in a mountain range outside of Superman's hometown Metropolis, in most of the later stories it was relocated to an undetermined location in the ice landscapes of the Arctic.
After the fortress was hardly used in the 1940s and early 1950s, it became a permanent location for Superman, beginning with the story The Super-Key to Fort Superman in the 1958 comic book Action Comics # 241 - Stories collected. In its current, "modern" version, the fortress was first presented in 1989 in The Adventures of Superman # 461.
Sometimes it can also be located in the Antarctic or in the Andes . Little is known to the fictional public in the Superman comics that the fortress exists, as its exact location is known to very few close friends and allies of Superman's such as Lois Lane, Professor Hamilton and Batman . The name of the fortress is based on the "Fortress of Solitude" of the adventure hero Doc Savage .
A traditional distinguishing feature of the fortress is that it contains a memorial statue of Superman's parents Jor-El and Lara, who - similar to the Greek titan Atlas - carry the planet Krypton (but not as a burden, but more playfully from both sides without each Exertion with one arm elevating).
Original version
The original version of the fortress was introduced in 1958 and was nestled in a steep arctic ice cliff. It could be entered through a gigantic golden door with an oversized keyhole, which could be opened with an equally gigantic key. When not in use, the arrow-like-looking key rested on a pedestal outside the fortress and was disguised as a signpost for planes: it was so heavy that only Superman could pick it up.
This traditional fortress contained an alien zoo, a steel diary in which Superman wrote his memories, a chess robot, a laboratory, communication equipment and special rooms that Superman had dedicated to his friends. In addition, the fortress has been enriched and supplemented with more and more details over the years: For example, the Superman double robots were stored in it, a projector was placed in it that enabled access to the phantom zone , and a kind of trophy chamber - similar to Batman's " Bath Cave ”- set up in which memories of the hero's adventures were kept. In addition, the fortress was the repository of the reduced bottle city of Kandor, inhabited by living beings, until it was enlarged.
A particularly well-known story about this fortress can be found in the Superman Annual 11 from 1985 by Alan Moore , which describes the intrusion of the extraterrestrial Mongul into the fortress. The last appearance of this fortress took place in the now famous story Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? from Action Comic 583 and Superman 423 from 1986.
Modern version
In Action Comics Annual 2 from 1989, Superman brought back a living Kryptonian artifact called the Eradicator from a trip into space, which developed its own consciousness and began to transform the earth into an image of the planet Krypton, from which Superman came . After Superman overcame the Eradicator, all that remained of the eradicator's attempt to "carpet" the earth with a "carpet" of Kryptonian technology was the fortress (built like the old version in the Arctic), which Superman kept as a useful emergency facility. This fortress also contained numerous utility, decorative and technological items from Krypton, including some robotic servants (including Superman's later friend Kelex) who were waiting for Superman in the fortress, and a Kryptonian battle suit from the third age of Krypton. The shrunken bottle city of Kandor, which Superman had snatched from the evil magician Tolos during an adventure in space, was also found in this version of the fortress.
This fortress was moved to the Phantom Zone after a fight between Superman, Lex Luthor and a being called Dominus. In place of the lost fortress, Superman and his friend, engineer John Henry Irons, built a new fortress in an extra-dimensional fold, which could be entered through a huge globe and, unlike its predecessor, was located in the Andes. This fortress was also destroyed.
The current fortress is located in an old temple "in the Cordillera Del Condor " mountains in the border area between Ecuador and Peru . This fortress still contains the city of Kandor, a portal to the Phantom Zone, Kryptonian and other extraterrestrial artifacts and holographic images of Jor-El and Lara and is the current home of Superman's dog Krypto and his caretaker, a robot named Ned and the robot Kelex , the chief overseer of the fortress.
The equipment of the fortress
Since its invention, the Fortress of Solitude has been increasingly used by the authors of the Superman stories as a platform and fictional pretext for the fulfillment of countless science fiction fantasies, for the integration of which into the Superman comics the fortress was used as a forum.
Even the furnishings of the fortress are a lively mixture of the most diverse elements of science fiction literature: In the 1960s to 1980s, a large number of extraterrestrial beings - housed in an "intergalactic zoo" - were housed in the fortress . In addition, in practically all versions there are various robots that take care of the guarding and maintenance of the fortress, among which the floating dwarf robotic Kelex stands out.
In addition to living quarters, the premises of the fortress even house "guest rooms" for Superman's friends in the particularly child-friendly stories from before 1986, a hologram room in which the history of Krypton can be relived through elaborate illusions, laboratories in which Superman required the tools for his adventures designs and builds, as well as a communication and command center equipped with extraterrestrial high technology.
A special "attraction" is the fortress' trophy hall. The showpiece of this room is the "bottle city" Kandor, a city shrunk by an alien (sometimes Brainiac, sometimes Tolos) and its inhabitants, which Superman brought back from one of his trips into space. Similar to a snow globe, this is housed in a bottle, the shell of which is supposed to form a kind of "dimensional barrier" that separates the reality of the living beings in the bottle from that of the characters in the actual Superman stories. Since the 1960s, Superman has been traveling to the city of bottles, where he experiences Flash Gordon- style adventures in a futuristic environment and is looking for a way to "de-shrink" the city and give its inhabitants back their freedom.
Other items in the trophy room are the rocket with which Superman was sent to earth as a baby from the planet Krypton, Kryptonian combat suits and two groups of giant statues: On the one hand, statues of Superman's birth parents Jor El and Lara, who lift up a replica of the planet Krypton other statues of the alien conquerors Quex-Ul, Laora and General Zod (the "criminals from the phantom zone "), who Superman killed in one of the "most important" stories of the series, because he saw no way to reliably imprison them, and who - so the explanation of the stories - should be an eternal reminder never to kill again.
The fortress in other media
In the Superman films with Christopher Reeve , the fortress is created by a viable crystal that Superman was given by his parents on his journey to earth. The crystal leads the young Clark Kent (Superman) into the Arctic, there awakens to sudden activity and melts a crystalline-structured structure into the ice masses.
In the Superman animated series of the 1990s, the fortress was located below the Arctic ice sheets and could be entered by immersing yourself in arctic water, swimming under an underground passage and surfacing in a cavity.
In the TV series Smallville , the fortress is made from three ancient Kryptonian stones that have been hidden on earth since the 16th century and that together contain all of Krypton's knowledge. Jor-El tells Clark to look for the stones and bring them to him. Clark also finds the stones and brings them to the Indian cave in which the spirit of Jor-El has nested. There the three stones are put together. A portal then opens, which transports Clark to the Arctic, where the stone creates a fortress of solitude, which is very similar to the fortress from the Superman films, but is much larger.
In the movie Superman Returns (2006), the design of the fortress from the films with Christopher Reeve was taken up again. Here Lex Luthor manages to break into the fortress and uncover Superman's secrets.
The Fortress of Solitude in the Doc Savage stories
Like Superman, Henry W. Ralston's heroic novel Doc Savage occasionally retreats to what is known as the "Fortress of Solitude" in the Arctic . Doc Savage already owned this refuge before Superman, so that an "inspiration" of the much better known Superman home from Doc Savage's Redoute can be assumed as likely. The first mention of this fortress is found in the Doc Savage novel Man of Bronze published in March 1933 . In October 1938 a novel followed, which had the name "Fortress of Solitude" in the title and which contained detailed information about Savage's accommodation. In the film Doc Savage - The Man of Bronze ( Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze ) from 1975 finally the first screen version of the fortress, an igloo-like structure found.
The Fortress of Solitude in American Pop Culture
In addition to the educational novel The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem , which was published in German by Goldmann in 2006, there is an almost incalculable mass of references, allusions and, in particular, parodies of the fortress in American television series and shows.
For example, the hobby cellar of the family man Red Forman in the series The Wild Seventies (That Seventies Show) is repeatedly referred to by the young protagonists of the series as their “fortress of loneliness”.
In Ernest Cline's science fiction novel Ready Player One , the protagonist Wade Owen Watts describes the asteroid Falco (named after the Austrian singer), which he acquired in the virtual world OASIS, as his “fortress of loneliness”.
Furthermore, in the cartoon series The Simpsons , the comic bookseller describes a dixi-loo house , in which he retreats for undisturbed reading, as his "fortress of solitude" (in the episode King of the Hill ), while the series South Park (in the episode Red Sleigh Down ) depicts Santa's dwelling at the North Pole - contrary to its traditional portrayal as a cozy winter house and old-fashioned handicraft workshop of elf men - as a high-tech fortress that is clearly modeled on the crystal fortresses of the Superman films.
In the series How I Met Your Mother , Barney describes his apartment several times as a "fortress of barreness".
The fortress was parodied as "Pillow Fort of Isolation" (in the series Drawn Together ), as "Fortress of Privacy" (in the show Saturday Night Live ), as "Thicket of Solitude" (in the series Doug ) and as "Dumpster of Streakitude" (in the animated series Krypto the Superdog ).
literature
- Ross Andru, Dick Giordano: The Fortress of Solitude. In: DC Special Series # 26, 1981.
- Ehapa (ed.): The Secret of Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Stuttgart 1983.